Leseverständnis
| Marks Going | 160 marks |
| Percentage of Final Grade | 40% |
| Timing | 95-100 minutes |
There are three reading comprehensions at Ordinary Level: Text I, Text II and Text III. Since this element has the highest weighting of all sections in the Leaving Cert exam, students should practice past papers regularly, build up their vocabulary and expose themselves to idiomatic German where possible.
Text I
- The first text is generally from a literary source. It could be a short story or an extract from a novel.
- It is therefore important you have a good understanding of the Präteritum to enable you to understand this text well.
- This text is worth 60 out of the 160 available marks for the Reading Section and you should aim to spend 35-40 minutes on it.
- Be sure to read all questions carefully and identify what is being asked. Revise the List of ‘W-Fragen’ to help with this.
- Always give as many details as you can.
- You must take your answers from the lines indicated in the question in order for your answer to be accepted.
- The last question involves matching one German heading from the list provided to each paragraph of the text. You will then have to briefly explain what this heading means in English. Simply translating all the words won’t always work and therefore you will likely have to interpret the heading as applied to the relevant paragraph. A good knowledge of vocabulary and idiomatic German will help with this.
Text II
- The second text is generally something journalist and often deals with a current or youth-orientated theme from a newspaper or magazine.
- This text is also worth 60 out of the 160 available marks for the Reading Section and you should aim to spend 30-35 minutes on it.
- Be sure to read all questions carefully and identify what is being asked. Revise the List of ‘W-Fragen’ to help with this.
- Always give as many details as you can.
- You must take your answers from the lines indicated in the question in order for your answer to be accepted.
- Be careful in the last exercise (which involves filling in the blanks or True/False questions) as this can be worth anywhere from 5-15 marks. You will have to have read the full text to be able to answer these.
Text III
- The third text is generally something journalist, thus similar in style to Text II.
- This text is worth the remaining 40 out of the 160 available marks for the Reading Section and you should aim to spend 20-25 minutes on it.
- Be sure to read all questions carefully and identify what is being asked. Revise the List of ‘W-Fragen’ to help with this.
- Always give as many details as you can.
- You must take your answers from the lines indicated in the question in order for your answer to be accepted.
- Be careful in the last exercise (which normally involves filling in the blanks) as this can be worth anywhere from 5-15 marks. You will have to have read the full text to be able to answer this.
Free Resources
Exam Papers and Marking Schemes
Text 1 Exam Papers OL
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Text 1 Marking Schemes OL
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Text 2 Exam Papers OL
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Text 2 Marking Schemes OL
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Text 3 Exam Papers OL
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Text 3 Marking Schemes OL
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